Built on the rock

Issue:

October, 2006

Cover Story

The dividing line between right and wrong is blurred to the point of almost not being there. Suddenly, there are issues ranging from new developments in science like stem cell research, to issues on sexuality that make it difficult for the Christian to find his ground. And whether we like it or not, these attitudes are seeping into the most basic realities of our everyday existence. They intrude into our families, careers, faith, friendships, society and politics. In fact, they revolve around the denial of an absolute truth and the establishment of a pragmatic, self-centered world view. A viewpoint from where morality or faith depends on one’s preferences and conveniences. This viewpoint, or the complete lack of it, is something that Pope Benedict XVI strongly warns us about when he speaks of the “dictatorship of relativism” in his homily in St. Peter’s Square before the conclave in April 2005, “Having a clear faith based on the creed of the Church is often labelled today as fundamentalism. Relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by every wind of teaching, looks like the only attitude acceptable to today’s standards... We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as definitive and has as its highest value one’s own ego and one’s own desires.”